1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a billing system and a billing method for billing connections in a telecommunications network.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the telecommunications field, a distinction is made between the communications provider, the service provider, and the user. The communications provider, in general a network operator, establishes the prerequisite for generating traffic by means of the infrastructure (fixed or mobile). The service provider can be the network operator himself, or a customer of this network operator, for example a service provider, for example a bank, which purchases airtime from an operator and sells it to the user as value added service. The user is a customer of a service provider. He uses a telecommunications system, and pays the service provider fees therefor, or he obtains a service (value added service) with a service provider.
In principle, the course of communication can be divided into two segments: signalling and traffic. The present invention relates to the determination of fees for both segments. Since, however, the signalling today is hardly charged for, only the determination of fees for the traffic segment will be described in the following. The traffic segment can be divided up into the following parts:
The carrier channels the traffic between the networks.
The operator runs the communications network, for instance a GSM, UMTS or IN network. He is the customer of the carrier.
The service provider is a customer of the operator, and obtains the communications service from him.
The service user is the end user, and is the customer of the service provider.
Determination of fees for traffic objects, for instance connections between carrier and operator, is carried out by means of the method known as interconnection. In principle, the same process, or a known variant via a classic billing system, can be used between the operator and the service provider. Traditionally, a classic billing system, for instance a system based on so-called call detail records (CDR), is used between the service provider and the user. Each connection is billed itemized.
These conventional billing systems are very dependent upon the infrastructure systems. Complex system interconnections are thereby created. Delivery of invoices today largely takes place on paper via the mail route. On the other hand, because there is a trend for the traffic fees to significantly drop, the cost ratio of revenue to billing expense is deteriorating. Moreover, such conventional billing systems generally do not enable user-dependent discounting. Moreover the systems cannot be combined well with pre-paid services which are increasing in significance.
More and more frequently, for instance in pre-paid systems, there is a demand for determining the connections and charging them to an account during or at the latest immediately after the connection. These requirements, however, call for the billing system to process in real-time all data determining the price of a connection. For instance, during or shortly after the connection, the billing system has to collect and process all the timing information and geographic data about the connection to be billed for, for example the duration of the connection, the time of day, the location of the calling and the called party, possible discounts, etc. A heavy load is thereby put on the billing system during peak hours and the billing system must be overdimensioned. Furthermore, depending on where the determination of the costs is executed, for instance in an operations center or in a SIM-card in a terminal device, it is sometimes difficult or even impossible to be provided with all the required information at the end of a connection. In mobile radio systems, for example, the CDRs needed for billing a call are not available until about 15 minutes after end of the call.